


The Crucible

by DementedPixie, drwhogirl



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Asylum18, Castiel is Jack's protector, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Fix-it, Episode: s12e23 All Along the Watchtower, Gabriel is Castiel's big brother, Gen, Hurt Castiel, Hurt/Comfort, JIB8, Protective Gabriel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-21
Updated: 2017-05-21
Packaged: 2018-11-03 11:10:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10966017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DementedPixie/pseuds/DementedPixie, https://archiveofourown.org/users/drwhogirl/pseuds/drwhogirl
Summary: Because this is what Fan Fiction writers do. We put things right.





	The Crucible

**Author's Note:**

> Because this is what Fan Fiction writers do. We put things right.

It was the height of summer and the roses were in bloom, their heady scent making Castiel sway slightly as he closed his eyes for a moment and breathed in. The warmth of the evening sun seemed to make the little garden glow in a pale peach haze and he smiled slightly, taking off his trenchcoat and hanging it on a large spade that had been left standing in the earth. He rolled up his shirt sleeves, picked up a trowel, and kneeled so that he could weed the flowerbeds.

There were bees in the garden, big, fat, buzzing bees, and colourful butterflies danced along the south facing wall of the bunker where he had planted an espalier pear tree that Sam had bought him. He wondered if he could find space for a greenhouse where he could grow tomatoes and red peppers. Maybe Dean would like him to try growing chillies.

Castiel loved his garden. But almost more than the garden itself, he loved the fact that he could possibly have such a precious thing. A home. A family. A place to be himself.

As he worked, gradually the sun slipped down below the high walls of the bunker and eventually Castiel put down his tools, gathered his belongings and prepared to make his way inside. Sam and Dean would be there, waiting for him. And he had been in the garden long enough.

Brushing the soil from his shoes, he opened the door.

As Cass walked through the door, into what he expected to be the familiar setting of the bunker, he was taken aback by the flat he found himself in. Turning back to exit through the same door he entered, he found it to be locked.

"That's very strange," he muttered to himself as he tried one more time, finally giving up in order to explore the new place he now found himself in.

It was a sleek and modern looking flat with art on the walls that he couldn't make sense of, it just looked like a lot of squares. As he entered what appeared to be the dining area he was able to see out of the panoramic windows into the beautifully unkempt cemetery below. As Cass approached the table to look in a bowl he found there he heard movement behind him. Battle reflexes kicking in, he grabbed the nearest weapon he could and spun round, brandishing whatever it was he had picked up.

"Really bro? A butter knife? What are you gonna do? Spread me?"

"Gabriel." Relief filled the room as Cass dropped the knife and ran into his big brother's arms. "It's so good to see you."

"Good to see you too, Cassie," Gabriel muttered, clutching the Seraph tight as if he were drowning and Cass were the last lifeline.

Castiel gave his brother one last squeeze then released him, visibly seeming to pull himself together.

“Are you real?” he asked, tilting his head to one side.

“Sure am.”

“Then... where are we?”

“This?” Gabriel wandered across to the bank of floor length windows and gazed out at the cemetery, thoughtfully. “This is my safe place.”

Castiel moved to his side, unwilling to be separated from his brother for a moment. “Why is it safe? And why am I here?”

Gabriel turned towards him, his eyes glinting with unshed tears. “Oh, Cassie, can’t you guess? Don’t you know?”

And, all at once, Castiel did know. The last few months of his life seemed to flash before him. The British Men of Letters. Sam, tortured. Sam and Dean, imprisoned. Mary, returned. Lucifer’s baby. Lucifer...Lucifer...

“Cassie? Castiel? Hey, come on now, just breathe, that’s it. In... out... breathe with me, little brother. Calm down, that’s it.”

Gabriel stayed sat on the floor with his arms wrapped around his little brother until his breathing steadied and his panic attack passed.

"Do you want to talk about how it happened?"

Cass looked up and blinked at his brother, surprised that he actually wanted to talk it through. Even so, Cass nodded.

"I think it was Lucifer. I was stabbed in the back and it felt like an angel blade."

Gabriel's arms reflexively tightened around the other angel at the mention of Lucifer's name.

"I thought you said he was trapped in the cage?"

Cass shook his head. "We... I... let him out when Amara was released. I thought he could help."

"I know Cassie, I understand."

Gabriel made a mental note to ask more questions about that later, but right now he needed to get his brother to rest. "Come on Cassie. Let's get you to bed."

He helped Cass to his feet and led him towards the master bedroom.

As they got to the doorway Castiel hesitated, causing Gabriel to nudge him a little more forcefully than he had intended.

“What’s up bro?”

“I don’t know what’s going to happen next.”

Gabriel smiled, reassuringly. “It’s okay, kiddo. This is my heaven. Nothing bad will happen. The most you’ll find is one of my memories, or yours.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” admitted Castiel, as they entered the bedroom together.

Gabriel fussed around his brother, pushing him so that he sat down on the side of the bed.

“You make yourself comfy,” instructed the archangel as he wandered into the en-suite to get a damp cloth. “You’ve had a shock and you really need to take it easy.”

“What, do you get your freak on by watching other people sleep? What do you want?”

Castiel jumped, then turned to stare at the other occupant of the bed in total shock.

“W... what?”

“You were watching over me while I sleep, weren’t you?”

“D...Dean?”

“Of course I’m ‘Dean’, who else would I be?”

“But...”

“This isn’t going to work, Cass. How did I get here?”

Castiel frowned, trying to remember. “Erm... time is...fluid, Dean. It’s not easy, but we can...bend it on occasion.”

“Well bend it back or tell me what the hell I’m doing here!”

Castiel stared at his friend, unsure of anything anymore except the need to play his part. “I... I told you, you have to stop it.”

“Stop what? Huh? What, is there something nasty after my Dad? Come on! What, are you allergic to straight answers, you son of a bitch?!”

“Woah there, Tiger,” exclaimed Gabriel as he rushed into the room just in time to prevent Dean from launching himself at Castiel. As he did so the image of the hunter vanished into thin air, leaving Gabriel shocked and Castiel with tears running down his face.

“Okay, that’s enough.” Gabriel manhandled Castiel until he was lying back on the bed with the covers over him, then put the damp cloth on his forehead. “You need to rest, bro. Just rest.”

“Was that...?”

“A memory. It was just a memory. I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise.”

As Castiel closed his eyes Gabriel sat on the bed beside him to watch over his brother. He’d made a promise and he wasn’t about to break it.

When Cass awoke, he was lying on a hard floor. He could hear his brother's voice coming from another room talking to someone that sounded like Sam. Cass scrambled to his feet and followed the sound into the room.

"Just take us back to that Tuesday—er, Wednesday—when it all started. Please. We won't come after you, I swear." Sam begged.

He was young, younger than Cass had ever seen him. That was when Cass realised, this must have happened before Dean went to hell. Before he'd met the Winchester brothers.

Gabriel didn't seem to have noticed his brother enter as he continued. "You swear."

"Yes."

"I don't know. Even if I could—"

"You can." Sam interrupted.

Cass moved to see his brother more clearly. Gabriel's eyes darted towards the movement and Cass noticed him wipe his eyes in an attempt to hide the fact that he was tearing up at Sam's desperate pleas

"True. But that don't mean I should. Sam, there's a lesson here that I've been trying to drill into that freakish Cro-Magnon skull of yours."

"Lesson? What lesson?"

"This obsession to save Dean? The way you two keep sacrificing yourselves for each other? Nothing good comes out of it. Just blood and pain. Dean's your weakness. And the bad guys know it, too. It's gonna be the death of you, Sam. Sometimes you just gotta let people go."

That's when Castiel realised what he'd walked in to. Mystery Spot.

"He's my brother."

"Yup. And like it or not, this is what life's gonna be like without him."

"Please. Just—please."

As he watched the exchange Castiel wondered how his brother managing to get through the exchange so well, with not a word out of place.

"I swear, it's like talking to a brick wall. Okay, look. This all stopped being fun months ago. You're Travis Bickle in a skirt, pal. I'm over it."

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning that's for me to know and you to find out."

As Gabriel snapped his fingers and Sam disappeared, Cass moved to hold his brother.

"Why did you do it?" Cass asked.

"Because I didn't know how different humanity were." Gabriel paused - despite his emotional state he knew this could be a good teaching moment so decided to tell his brother everything. "I wanted to teach him to let go of Dean. I didn't know what else to do so I used the old fallback we'd use on angels that didn't want to do something, where they faced it until they could do it without problems." Cass nodded, remembering how many times he'd been made to kill Dean. "But humans are different, they don't respond the same way as angels. I never knew that I was actually torturing him."

"He forgives you Gabriel. He read the book and understood what you were trying to tell him."

Gabriel shrugged off the reassurance though, not feeling he deserved it. "Whatever, let's just get out of here."

The two brothers found themselves stood on a hillside overlooking a hospital. It was dark and misty and at first they couldn’t quite make out what was happening.

“I know this place,” muttered Castiel.

“Yeah?” Gabriel looked down at the scene that was slowly clearing before them. The figure of Dean Winchester gradually came into focus. “Oh. Him again.”

“It’s okay,” said Castiel.

“Really? Because every time you get involved with him, you get hurt. And I don’t want to see that happen again, bro.”

“Cass?”

Castiel turned away from his brother and towards the man he considered his best friend. “I remember you. I remember everything. What I did. What I became. Why didn't you tell me?”

Dean looked at him with a look of sheer desperation. “Because Sam is dying in there.”

“Because of me. Everything. All these people. I shouldn't be here.”

“If you remember, then you know you did the best you could at the time.”

“Don't defend me. Do you have any idea the death toll in Heaven? On Earth? We didn't part friends, Dean.”

“So what?”

“I deserved to die. Now, I can't possibly fix it... So why did I even walk out of that river?”

“Maybe to fix it. Wait.”

Dean opened Baby’s trunk and took out a neatly folded trenchcoat. A trenchcoat that he had kept safe all this time, just waiting for the moment to give it back to its owner. He handed it to Castiel who took it from him, tentatively.

“You... you kept it?”

“Of course I kept it. I couldn’t let you go, Cass. Neither of us could.”

Castiel still looked as though he was having trouble processing this, believing this.

“Why don’t you both hate me?”

Dean took a step closer, placing his hand firmly on Castiel’s arm. “You can’t possibly mean that, Cass. You’re our family, our brother. And we will, both, always, love you.”

Castiel’s eyes misted. “You never... you’ve never said.”

“Yeah, well. I don’t. But now I am. Whatever happens, Cass, whatever any of us do, I will always believe in you. I will always be there for you.”

Castiel turned to where his brother was still standing and looked up at him. For the first time in a long, long time, Castiel finally felt at peace. Gabriel nodded in acceptance and allowed himself a small smile.

As Cass took a step forward, Gabriel's hand shot out to grab his arm. They were on a beach and right where Cass had been about to place his foot, a little grey fish was crawling out of the ocean.

"Don't step on that fish, Castiel. Big plans for that fish."

Castiel turned to look at Gabriel, a look of awe on his face. "This was our first trip to Earth on our own."

"Still don't know why dad let me take you. You were just a fledgling and that was almost the end of humanity right there."

"Father would have been furious." Castiel added. "Especially given it was our job to make sure no predators ate the fish."

Gabriel laughed. "I remember how angry Michael was when he was told it was our job to look after the fish. I thought he'd explode then and there."

Castiel laughed too. "You tried to make him explode."

"To be fair he deserved it." Gabriel grinned. Then his face fell. "I wish we'd never had to lose that. Our family."

"But we still have each other and now we're back together we can be a new family." Castiel assured his brother.

Gabriel nodded and in the moment of silence they heard a strange noise from behind them.

They glanced at each other as the crackling sound got closer and they could feel heat beginning to radiate towards them. As they turned they saw a young man, naked as the day he was born, stood behind them. Gabriel recognized the source of the crackling sound as being the sand underneath the man’s feet as the footprints in the molten sand behind him turned to glass.

Castiel had a moment of clarity as he moved towards the man. “Jack?”

“Who’s Jack?” asked Gabriel.

“Lucifer’s child,” replied Castiel.

“What? Hey! We’re Uncles!”

Jack looked like a lost soul drowning in a sea of confusion. He opened his mouth but no sound came out. Unwilling to go too close and risk spooking him, Castiel just stood, quietly, and made direct eye contact.

Gabriel gasped at the two men as both their sets of eyes burned gold.

“It’s going to be okay,” said Castiel. “I’m here to look after you, as I promised.”

There was a few moments silence and then Castiel spoke again. “I’m sorry about your Mother. Yes. I will go back with you. It will all be alright.”

“Hey,” said Gabriel, “what did he say?”

“You didn’t hear that?”

“No.”

Castiel tilted his head to one side. “Interesting. He appears to be communicating with me telepathically. He wants to take me back.”

“Back where?” asked Gabriel.

“He wants to bring me back to life.” Castiel concentrated again, absorbing Jack’s latest message. “Yes, but I’m not leaving my brother. That’s not negotiable.”

“Cassie?”

“No, Gabe, I’m not leaving you behind again.”

"Cassie, please. Don't do this."

"No, Gabriel. I'm not going back without you."

"Cass, you have a family out there. The Winchesters need you. Jack needs you." Gabriel gave his brother a gentle push in Jack's direction.

"But you'd be alone."

Gabriel sighed. "Cass, after everything I've done, and I've done a lot, I deserve to be alone."

There was a cabin by the lake. A simple wooden cabin framed by the beauty of the mountains and deep, dark water.

Dean knelt in the earth, staring at the body of his friend. More than his friend. Castiel had saved him and Sam so many times, selflessly sacrificed himself over and over until now Dean simply couldn’t imagine life without him. Some time ago, and he had no concept of how much time had gone by, he had become vaguely aware of his brother leaving him and entering the cabin. But all he himself could do was sit with Castiel, watch over him, and keep his body safe in death in the way he couldn’t do in life. He was completely unaware of the tears rolling down his face as he tried to avoid looking at the huge shadow of tattered wings spread out on the ground around them.

And then the guilt hit. How could he have let this happen? He and Sam had explained the plan to Cass, hadn’t they? So why did Cass come back through the portal at that precise moment when they nearly had Lucifer trapped? And once inside the alternate universe it was as if he wasn’t listening to anyone, and certainly not to Dean. But that always had been Castiel’s trouble. He would do anything in his power to protect the Winchesters, even if it meant his own life.

And so Dean did the only thing he could. He sat beside his friend’s body, and wept.

Dean needed a moment. That's what Sam decided as he slipped away. Dean needed a moment with Cass, to mourn him properly. Of course Sam would need that chance eventually too but Dean and Cass had always been closer, so he could wait. First, Sam thought, he needed to check out the situation with Jack. As he approached the room where they'd left Kelly, he spotted the footprints on the floor. Footprints burnt into the floor. He followed them from the entrance of Kelly's room, to what had been going to be the nursery. But with both Cass and Kelly dead, the baby couldn't stay here. Sam didn't even want to think about what they would do with the child.

Entering the dark room, he noticed a figure. Curled up in the corner was a naked man, eyes glowing gold. As Sam approached, the man cowered in fear until in the blink of an eye he was gone. Sam stopped and stared at the spot where he'd been, only a burnt patch on the floor evidence that he was ever there. Then in another blink, he was back, watching Sam carefully.

Sam took another step closer, not noticing the room's other occupant until his foot came down on something soft.

"Oi! Watch it Sasquatch! Some of us are trying to sleep here!"

"Gabriel?"

Jack momentarily forgotten, Sam helped the archangel to his feet, where he proceeded to topple over again. Sam tried not to laugh, being dead for 7 years probably had that affect. He put his arm around Gabriel's waist to hold him upright. Gabriel was about to start complaining indignantly about the help that he definitely didn't need when he realized something.

"Where's Cassie?"

"Gabriel he's-"

"Whatever you're about to say, don't you dare. Just take me to him." Sam sighed and did as he was told, keeping his arm wrapped around Gabriel's waist. He figured when he found out what had happened, he'd probably need all the support he could get.

There was one very definite moment as Sam and Gabriel emerged onto the front step of the cabin when Dean Winchester was sitting on the ground, tears streaming down his face, hugging a suddenly very much alive angel to him as if he was never going to let him go. However, that moment vanished almost as soon as it had appeared. As soon as he realised he had witnesses he slapped Castiel firmly on the back and coughed, wiping the tears from his face with one swipe of his shirt sleeve.

“Hey, Sammy,” he said, the tears making his ruined voice even deeper than usual. “Gabriel? Where did he come from?”

Sam waved his free arm towards Dean, who then realised that Sam’s other arm was tucked around Gabriel’s waist. “Jack...” he said, his eyes widening in disbelief as he spoke. “Jack brought him back. Is... Is Cass okay?”

Castiel sat upright, releasing himself fully from Dean’s embrace.

“Yes, thank you, Sam,” he replied, getting to his feet. He reached a hand down to Dean who took it firmly, allowing the angel to pull him upright.

As Sam and Gabriel joined them the four figures took a moment to look each other over for injuries or any new threat to be worried about, but found none. Sam hugged Castiel and Dean even found it in himself to shake Gabriel by the hand.

By some miracle they had all come through this latest challenge unscathed.

A small sound from the cabin drew their attention and they looked up to see Jack shivering in the doorway. The boy still looked terrified and unsure, and a little embarrassed to be the centre of their attention. He was also still naked and evidently starting to feel exposed. Castiel, the one who Jack had selected to be his protector when he was still in the womb, moved towards his charge, slipping off his trenchcoat as he did so.

“Here,” he said, placing the coat gently around the boy’s shoulders. “There’s no need to be frightened. I’m here now.”

Lucifer’s son may, technically, be an orphan. But he now had a Father and three Uncles, all of whom would bring him up the way his Mother would have wanted.

There was hope.


End file.
